The Gift of Payback
by millenniumthief
Summary: Yugi manages to get Ryou a day of freedom, unfortunately for Yami-Bakura. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh!

A/N: This is my first attempt at humor, so feel free to criticise me all you want. It's an early B-day fic for Ryou and me (we share the same birthday, Sept 2!) and I didn't feel right having him angsty again. He deserves a good day. This is also the closest I've gotten them to separate bodies. I'm not quite ready for them to part, yet.

To anyone waiting for my WEWY fic, I'm so sorry! I have the worst case of writer's block ever...it doesn't seem fair.

The Gift of Payback

"Ryou! Ryou, open up!" Yugi yelled through Ryou's apartment door. "Hurry up!"

The addressed person massaged his temples for a few seconds before opening the door that Yugi was sure to break down if he kept beating on it.

"What is it, Yugi?" Ryou asked, even though he knew the answer already.

"Happy Birthday!"

Yep, he was right, but that didn't explain why Yugi was at his house at six-thirty in the freaking morning. He had a nagging feeling he'd find out soon, though. He stared at Yugi, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"…"

…and waiting…

"…"

…and waiting…

Well, he wasn't going to wait all morning.

"What do you want, Yugi?!" he was annoyed into yelling.

"I-I can't tell you!" the smaller boy shouted back.

Ryou blinked. "What? Why no-?"

A blinding flash startled the British boy into careening backward, nearly causing him to crack his head on the RPG table in the center of the room. Hmm, a concussion…that would have made a nice present…

"What the bloody hell was that for?!" he yelped, trying to clear the spots from his vision.

"Um…remember in Duelist Kingdom when Yami put your soul back in your body?" All Ryou could do was nod. "Well, we decided to see if we could reverse it.

"Wait...you tried to remove my soul?" Ryou gasped, completely shocked.

Yugi gulped. "No, no. That was…a bad way to put it. Why don't you just look?" he said, pointing to the game board Ryou had tried to become painfully acquainted with. The white-haired hikari stared at the landscape, confused until he saw something move, something that looked remarkably like him…Ryou's eyes widened.

"You didn't…"

Yugi just smiled.

A miniature Bakura figurine rubbed its forehead a few times before standing up and looking around. He looked at the surroundings, examined the tiny body, and finally glanced up.

"AHHHHH!!" Yami Bakura yelled in a mix of rage, and surprisingly, a tiny bit of fright.

"Wow…" Ryou and Yugi commented at the same time.

"Pharaoh! I know you did this!" he screamed in a much higher pitched voice than usual. "My…what did you do to my _voice_? You're going to _pay _for this!" he continued, squeaking at the end of his rant. When he was reduced to swear words, Ryou picked up one of the buildings and plunked it over his head, effectively muffling his shouts.

Yugi tore his eyes from the entertaining sight and said, "So, what do you want to do now?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we decided this would be our present to you. An entire day without fear of being possessed! We didn't want to tell you in case it didn't work."

Suddenly, Yami Bakura squeaked from the table, "What the hell am I supposed to do all day?!"

The two boys looked at the table, startled. Ryou sighed, for the first time cursing the amount of detail he'd put into his models. His counterpart had apparently found the door to the building and a tiny knife. A tiny knife…A shockingly evil thought slid into Ryou's mind. Going to his cabinets, he shuffled around until he found what he was looking for.

"Here," he said, dropping two miniature ten-sided dice onto the table, carefully avoiding the evil one's knife. He knew from experience that poly-resin could hurt. "I'll set the computer to be Dungeon Master, and _you _can spend the day trapped in an RPG."

While Yami Bakura growled incoherently, Yugi stared at Ryou in awe. "I didn't know you could be so mean."

"Well, I learned from the best, I guess," he replied, nodding toward his yami. He leaned closer to whisper, "Now come on; I don't want to be near him when he realizes he's an Elven archer, and that his knife will be almost completely useless soon…"

Suppressing their laughter, they darted from the apartment…just missing the evil spirit's shout of: "PHARAOH! I'll get you for this!!"

A/N: Well, I'm keeping it as In Progress, in case anyone wants the rest of Ryou's and Bakura's day. Please review and tell me if I should continue or if I should stop.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh!

To my reviewers: Grass stained Umbrella, Hikari Kame, Niilan, and Constança. Thank you for asking me to continue this story. Enjoy! (I hope )

The Gift of Payback  
Chapter 2

"So, you never did answer me."

Ryou and Yugi were currently strolling down one of the main streets in Domino City, having just escaped the apartment building and a very angry spirit. Ryou looked unsure of what Yugi meant.

"What did you ask?" the taller one wondered.

Yugi laughed a little bit. "What do you want to do today?" Ryou shuffled his feet.

"Well, I…um, I don't know," he finished lamely, blushing full force.

"Aw, come on! You can tell me!" Yugi pleaded. "What is it?"

Ryou fidgeted uncomfortably, unwilling to admit to what he was about to say, even though he knew Yugi wouldn't laugh…probably. "Well, I always tend to avoid…violent activities because of my yami, but…I heard about something I'd like to try."

Yugi nodded, encouraging Ryou to continue. "Aaaand…?"

"I…I want to…go paintballing with Jonouchi, Honda, and you."

There was an awkward silence as Yugi stopped dead, and Ryou stared at him.

"You want to…?" the small boy began. Ryou nodded. "Ah-hahahaha! Ryou-kun, you don't have a violent bone in your body! There's no way you could…!" Yugi almost collapsed into a fit of hysterical giggles.

Ryou glared, obviously offended. "Try me!"

"OK, let's go get the others, then," Yugi said, gasping in air to stop his laughter. "Oh man, you don't stand a chance against us!"

* * *

Back at Ryou's apartment, Yami Bakura gazed moodily at the tiny dice clutched in his hand. How dare those-those _mortals _trap him here? He was always trapped! Trapped in the ring, trapped in his host, trapped in this bloody RPG! He was sick of it!

"I'm not playing this! There has to be a way out!" he shouted desperately. He glared at his surroundings, taking in anything useful. Hmm…some of those fir trees were quite tall, right next to the edge of the board. Quickly forming a plan in his mind, he smirked.

Mentally criticizing and complementing his host for the minute additions to this tabletop game, he went to the blacksmith's shop in town and stole a ladder. It was amazing how the largest items could shrink to be portable; otherwise he might not have made it.

Placing the ladder at the base of the tallest tree he could find, he scrambled up and into the branches. Even in this small body, he was still agile, and he quickly found himself at the top of the great pine. The spirit took a deep breath, crouched his knees, and leapt.

The wall came closer and he grasped at it. He was almost there…

"Yes-yes-ye…no! Nooo!" He bounced ineffectively at the side of the table and rebounded, landing painfully on the ground. "Gaaah! This isn't fair!!" Realizing he couldn't do much injured, he uncorked a potion (also stolen) and took a swig, revising his plan for the next attempt.

* * *

Jou looked at Ryou as though the latter was out of his mind. "Ya sure ya wanna do this? We're not gonna go easy on ya, ya know?"

"I _know_, Jonouchi. I don't _want_ you to go easy on me. I _want _to have fun for once!" Ryou argued, in a tone like he was explaining something to a small child.

"We don't want ya ta get hurt…"

Honda watched the normally calm one of the bunch bristle and decided to intervene. "Let him do what he wants. _He's _mature enough to be able to choose for himself," he taunted.

"What's that supposed ta mean?! I'm not?"

Yugi looked between the two, and said, "Guys, let's not fight. It's Ryou's birthday! Let's just get to the arena."

About an hour later, all four were dressed in gear with paintball guns, prepared to do battle. Ryou figured it would be more fun with more people and allowed others to join their group. And then, it began.

Ryou crept around the edge of a wall, carefully looking past the corner to see if anybody was on the other side. A **pop** sent him scrambling back to the safe side of his wall, and he waited to see if the person would follow him. To Ryou's amusement and shock, his enemy came around the wall, only to find himself face to face with Ryou's gun.

Ryou snickered. _What a noob!_ he thought.

Meanwhile, Yugi was struggling in his gear, leaving him open to an attack. A red splatter went across the area right over his heart. He looked up to see the one that had shot him recoil in surprise. Did he know him? Or was he just shocked that he'd actually shot someone? Either way, the person disappeared deeper into the arena and Yugi was out of the game.

Jou and Honda had chosen to work together to take down the rest of the players and have a shoot-off to decide the winner. They had already shot two of the other people that had joined and hadn't seen any for quite some time.

"Hey, Honda, ya think we're the only ones left?" Jou asked, becoming quickly impatient.

"Probably. Should we figure out the winner now?" Honda replied, confident in his abilities to defeat Jou.

"Yeah! You're goin' down!"

They started back to back, walking for three seconds in opposite directions, before turning and firing. Jonouchi caught Honda in the leg just a fraction of a second before Honda's paintball collided with his shoulder.

"I WON!!" Jou shouted…right before Ryou darted in front of him without one splatter of paint on his body. "Huh? RYOU!! You suck!" he pouted, and the former teammates trudged angrily out of the arena.

Ryou realized he was probably on his own, and was getting more nervous by the second. He had no way of knowing where anybody was, and started to panic. With his ears ringing, he didn't hear the one last person creeping up behind him. The next thing he knew, there was another small **pop **and a red streak of paint appeared on his chest from the same opponent who had shot Yugi, and the game was over.

The mystery player walked out of the arena and Ryou followed. He was so lost in the maze of walls and pillars it wasn't even funny.

"Ryou! Who won?" Yugi yelled as soon as he was in sight.

"He did," the British one replied, motioning toward the victor. The winner stopped dead in his tracks.

"'He?' Not on your life," the winner replied, removing the helmet atop the rest the gear and revealing shoulder length brown hair.

The four boys gaped. "Anzu?!" they gasped.

The girl nodded. "Now, anyone care to tell me why I wasn't invited?"

* * *

A/N: Ohh…I felt my humor was a bit off, but I still kinda like how this turned out.

On a different note, Grass stained Umbrella and Niilan both mentioned Yami Bakura's revenge for this day in their reviews. Thank you especially, because I've got an idea for my first horror fic that won't leave me alone now! I only hope I can write down all my ideas to where it makes sense. I'll start it after this one. And…it's not going to be so fluffy…(cringe)


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh.

A/N: Well, as much as I think college has killed my sense of humor, here it is! The third chapter. Thank you again to Niilan, for the review!

All the boys stared dumbfounded at Anzu as she stared at them waiting for her answer. When she started to get impatient, Honda muttered, "Well, we didn't think you would feel it would be good for our friendship…"

Ryou and Yugi were suddenly frozen in place, but Jou started edging carefully away from Anzu; friendship was a sacred word in her eyes.

"Oh dear…" Ryou whispered, inching his hands towards his ears as she turned several different shades of red in anger. He'd just gotten them covered, when…

"But leaving me out is just _great _for friendship, is that it?! 'Let's just forget about Anzu! We wouldn't want to hurt our _friendship_ with her!' Oh, yes, that's a much better idea in my opinion! It's not like I--"

Honda cringed, leaning as far away as he could with his feet rooted to the ground in fear. "Calm down, Anzu; it's Ryou's birthday!" he tried to say.

"I'm not yelling at Ryou though, am I?! I'm…oh, happy birthday, Ryou…You didn't even want me to be with Ryou on his BIRTHDAY?!"

Jou had somehow managed to disappear in the midst of the fight, and Ryou decided to follow suit. He tugged on Yugi's arm. "Let's get out of here," he mumbled quietly.

Yugi nodded and slowly started walking backward.

"Where are you going?" Anzu asked.

"Run!" Yugi yelped, sprinting as fast as could, dragging Ryou along with him. Ryou had always found the fact that Yugi could run faster than him ironic; he chalked it up to adrenaline. Behind them, they could hear Anzu yelling at Honda some more, something along the lines of, "…making Yugi and Ryou afraid of me!" They didn't mind. At least she wasn't following them.

Once they were far enough away they couldn't hear Anzu's screams, Ryou turned to Yugi.

"Can we go to the game shop? I just remembered that I gave my yami my last pair of dice…I'm afraid I'll need another set by the time today is over…" he sighed.

"Yeah, no problem!" the smaller boy agreed, and they started working their way to his house.  
--

About that time, a couple of miniature dice went flying through the air to land with a clunk on a painted puddle of water. Yami Bakura's eye twitched as he regarded the only thing his hikari had not decided to design realistically. Maybe the water would have caused a problem with the electricity…Oh well; the dice met their unfortunate end by the heel of one of the spirit's boots.

"Now, what am I going to do…?" he pondered. "Hmm, maybe I should plan my own revenge for today." A smirk graced the figurine's features as he thought about what he might be able to do. He hightailed it back to the pub and stole the shopkeeper's quill and ink from the counter, along with the paper that tabs were written on. Without a second thought, he began to write his plan.

--

Yugi watched as Ryou purchased a full sized set of six dice: two ten-sided, two four-sided one three sided, and one twenty-sided. He thought the British boy needed model dice. That's what he had said…

"Hey, Ryou, didn't you need small dice?" he asked. Ryou laughed in spite of himself, surprised Yugi hadn't thought of that sooner.

"How many miniature dice have you seen? No…I make them myself by shaving down the sides so that they're exactly the same shape they started as," he explained.

"So...what, now?" the other boy wanted to know.

Ryou shifted a bit guiltily in front of Yugi. "Well, I haven't really been alone since the spirit's been gone, and I was hoping to spend some time by myself for a while…" Ryou's chocolate brown eyes begged Yugi to understand.

Yugi's head fell sadly, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah, I get it. Go ahead; it's only fair."

Ryou's eyes lit up, and he bounced away, waving to Yugi over his shoulder. Eventually, he slowed down enough to enjoy where he was going. Everything seemed so different; the lights were brighter, noises were clearer, and everything smelled so good. For the first time in a while, he wasn't weighed down by anything.

He decided to stop in the park and settle on one of the benches. Sighing happily, he closed his eyes and listened to the fountain, cicadas, and the scream of a real-life fan girl that caused his eyes to shoot open again.

"EEEEEK! Bakura-kun! Miho missed you so much! Is it true it's Bakura-kun's birthday? Happy birthday, Bakura-kun!"

Ryou stared in absolute horror at the blue-haired girl that was shrieking his name at the top of her lungs. 'Oh my…I thought she moved away…' he moaned to himself.

He couldn't dwell very long on this fact, as he was suddenly throttled and choked by Miho's hug. "Miho! Please…g-get…o-off…!" he ground out as best he could under the circumstances.

"But, Miho is so glad she could see you! I want to hug you so tight!"

"Um, I have to get home, Miho…" he said, realizing that the sun was close to setting and that his words were unfortunately true.

Miho, however, wasn't turned away by his excuse. "Miho can walk with you!"

Ryou groaned again. "Actually, my apartment was hit by an…an infestation," he fibbed, thinking of the spirit as a kind of pest. "I have to go clean up, and I'm not entirely sure the situation was taken care of…"

The white-haired boy watched with a perverse kind of satisfaction at the chill that ran down Miho's spine.

"Okay, then…Miho will let you go then…" she pouted, cringing at the idea of what could be lurking in her crush's home.

Quite rapidly, without giving Miho the chance to strangle him again, Ryou walked away in the opposite direction. As much as he regretted what he was about to do, he had to be reacquainted with the other part of himself he had left that morning.

--

A/N: I think I can squeeze one more chapter for the reunion and that'll be a wrap for this story. The chapter might me a lot shorter. I'm not sure yet. Yes, Miho is that scary…I thought I was bad. Sorry about the lack of Yami Bakura. His actions can be comical, but overall, I can't make him that funny. Sorry 'Kura fan girls…To anyone who's read this far, you get a Ryou plushie! Please review, it really helps me to know what you think! I hope I see you next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Yu-gi-oh belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

A/N: Well, this is it. The last chapter of Ryou's birthday! I hope you have fun with this last (short) chapter.

Yugi stared down at the chaos reigning on the game board while a smug Yami Bakura reclined against the foot of the dungeon master's castle. How could one spirit cause so much confusion in one day? The blacksmith was interrogating everyone about his missing ladder, the bartender was to the point of throwing everyone out of the bar if he didn't get his quill and paper back, and townspeople everywhere were wondering about the strange fragments found magically floating on what seemed to be water.

"What did you _do_?" Yugi gasped. He certainly hadn't expected this when he forced Yami Bakura's soul into the RPG. He was quite sure Ryou wasn't going to be happy when he got back.

The figurine flashed an evil grin before looking up at the boy. "I had fun." Well, at least for the last bit, with everyone running around like crazy people. Then, he felt right at home in this board game.

Yami Bakura looked mildly amused as the bartender finally snapped, sending people scurrying from the bar and back to their houses. "And STAY OUT!!" he yelled at them. The spirit allowed himself another smirk.

"Why did you need paper?" Yugi wondered. It didn't make any sense at all to him that the spirit would need to write anything down.

"That is for me to know," he said with a snicker, "and you to find out…" He enjoyed watching the shiver travel down Yugi's small frame. Yugi couldn't help but flinch at Yami Bakura's words.

He was about to give in to his curiosity about the ladder too, when the door crashed open, making him jump and whirl around.

"Sorry," Ryou muttered. "Fan-girl…"

Even Bakura grimaced at that. He'd had so many encounters with fan-girls to last him another three millennia.

Ryou took the time to examine his game. "Looks like I was right about the dice," he commented offhandedly.

"You're not upset?" Yugi asked, fearing the worst.

The white-haired hikari gave a shrug. "I knew it wasn't going to be pretty." With that, he turned to Yugi and whispered, "Why do you have to put him back?"

Yugi sighed; he'd been expecting this question. "He always finds his way back anyway. It's better to know when he does."

"Oh…" Ryou wasn't thrilled with the idea, but had to admit it made sense. "I guess you should probably get on with it then."

Yugi placed his hands around his Millennium Puzzle and it began to glow. Ryou hoped that the spirit being put back wouldn't be as disastrous as when he was ripped out. Just to be sure, he stood away from anything he could fall onto. Yugi shot him a questioning glance, and Ryou nodded.

Just like before, there was a bright flash, and Ryou threw his arm over his eyes to keep from being blinded again. Even so, he had to blink away the shimmering spots. "Is that it?" Ryou asked, noticing a dying light from his Ring.

"Yeah…" Yugi said, smiling sadly. "So, did you have fun while it lasted?"

Ryou responded with a bright grin. "Yes, I don't remember the last time I was actually alone, even if it did get interrupted…Thank you."

Yugi giggled. "No problem. I'll see you tomorrow at school?"

"Of course!" Yugi walked slowly out of the apartment while Ryou turned off the computer to his RPG. He located the ladder easily enough, but it took him a while to find the paper and quill in the figurine's pocket. He couldn't make out any of the squiggles on the paper. They were probably hieroglyphics, Ryou supposed. He placed the items back and gathered up the pieces to his smashed dice. Even through the clean-up, Ryou couldn't help but smile, trying his best to remember everything that had happened. Finally, he gave up and went to bed, wishing for happy dreams through the night.

The End

A/N: And so ends Ryou's day! And that ends my very first completed chapter fic ever! Thanks to everyone who read and my reviewers who pushed me to finish this. Please review and say if you liked it or not. I'll try to get started on the sequel to this soon, but college is crazy. I wrote this chapter after finishing two three-page papers for tomorrow! The sequel will be my first attempt at horror, so if you don't like stuff like that, you should probably stay very far away…Be back soon (I hope).


End file.
